<<UPDATED : the animation bases are on the thread 5 & 7 of this topic.>>

I´m trying to realize how to create an animation base for TS3, just like the Dr Pixel´s TS2 base. (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=239172)

I´ve extracted the adult male shoes, bottom, top, face and scalp geometries (LOD1) and bones from FullBuild0.package. Then using the MilkShape GEOM plugin, I´ve imported de simgeoms and skcons files into MS, creating five groups : shoes, bottom, top, scalp and face. To the face i´m using only the LOD1_2, that is the face surface.

Ok, this way i have a working mesh, with working bones, fine. But when I import a SMD file, created by the AnimTool, the mesh became distorted. The sample pic below have the wave_Larm SMD loaded...


I´m sure that i´m missing something. I´ve tried to regroup, to merge files and other tricks, but I don´t get it. I also played with the AutoNum and Extra Data tools, but really don´t know if it are useful for this.

How to create a functional mesh + bone that works with Animtool´s SMDs ?

You need a _rig file I think, WesHowe made one for a female that works.
Did you read every information in the Animation Tools threads, he explanes it all there.

For additional information you can read the txt files that are included in the AnimTool download. If I were you and understood any of it that's where I would start.

It was all "triple-readed", believe me

But i figured what is happening : the bones acquired from the skcon files are slightly different from the bones inside the ms3d file provided by Wes. Look bellow,the left one is from Wes's file, the right one from skcon ...


I really don't know how Wes got this bones configuration, I tried to replicate it, using the same GEOMs and SKCONs, but when using the extracted skcon files the result is always the same, a hard mesh distortion after the SMD load.

This may not be a rig issue, since the auRIG is used by all adults in game, so the provided rigfile.txt might work on adult males too. The problem is not on the CLIP -> SMD file conversion, it is really a skeleton issue.

Wes's file is functional and really works, i was just trying to do an "ambody4anim" file.

Thanks for your replies.

{Update : New MS and rig files (Feb-19-2010)}

After a few tweaks I was able to open the auRig.gr2 . It was needed to strip out some data of the file extracted by s3pe.

Based on this file I created a new rigfile for adults, it seems very correct and aligned. Using this rigfile and Wes´s animtool it´s possible to create/edit precise animations like the classic "hipsShake":


UPDATES:
The file am_body_4_anim_20110504.rar contains a mesh with a much better vertex weighting (may-05-2011). Thanks to the super-hiper-dupper new Wes plugin : http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=441722
The previous one (adult_bodies_4_anim_2010_02_19.rar) stays for reference only.

Next week i will try on the cuRig to produce a child animation base.

When I used the AnimTool with your rig and txt file I got this error message while trying to convert the EA Hands Above clip:


I've included a view of my working folder so you can see what I have in there.

To get around this I navigated to the folder shown above and selected your rigfile manually as suggested by the error message. This allowed the clip-->smd conversion to go through with no errors. I opened the .smd after importing your ambody4anim.ms3d. It played the clip accurately with no problems.

However when I then converted that .smd back into a clip using the AnimTool (making no changes to it at all) and packaged the clip it came into the game with the same foot animation problem that I've previously described in the AnimTool thread Wes started (with footage from the game).

That is, the feet and legs don't reflect the animations that should be there. If you need a link I'll provide one but I think you've posted in that thread so I'm guessing that you've seen what I'm talking about.

It's unclear to me from what Wes has posted to date whether he thinks this problem is related to the rig or the AnimTool itself. Whichever it is, I think your rig is being affected by the same problem. I can post my package if you need to see it.

{Updated : new MS and rigfile files attached (Feb-16-2010)}

Yes, orangemittens, I named the rigfile as adult_rigfile to avoid future confusions. I'm posting today the child animation base and the rigfile is named child_rigfile.

About the feet slipping , in my opinion, it is an IK issue, the game engine may use a Inverse Kinematics system anywhere. At first glance i supposed that the problem was that the real skeleton root (b_Root) is not used by Animtool ( that starts from b_Root_bind ), but after an analysis using 3dsMax I figured that there is no animation data on b_Root, so this is not the point. {DELETED:This feet issue can be well observed on the attached avi file, created using 3dsMax}.

It´s carnival season, and here at Brazil it means fun ! Next week I will try on IKs on 3dsMax to discover if it is the problem.


But there are good news, when creating your own new animation, Animtool + provided rigfiles will produce an usable clip.

A great weekend you all !

I think I see...the AnimTool was looking for a rigfile.txt with a certain name and not finding it allows you to choose one instead?...is that right?

I apologize for not noticing the feet slippage issue in your avi...for some reason I couldn't get that avi to play so I went ahead and tested your rig without knowing what to expect. Having tested I then wanted to let you know how things worked out. And in MS they worked out great

I'm really happy to read that you're planning on delving further into the feet issue. I'll be looking forward to any further discussion you post on your findings although I have to admit a lot of it is over my head...lol.

Have a great weekend and fun at the carnival

eta: I forgot I wanted to ask you about the presence of two separate adult bodies in the rar. If we use the male one does this mean animations made with it won't work for a female Sim and vice versa?

Holly codecs ... Bellow is a gif version, i deleted the previous one to avoid server overload, who knows, one of these days, we will have the search function back...




Yes, it works, but, at least for me, sometimes it's hard to create a typical feminine animation using a man model, and vice versa . It's just for help on a new animation creation.

Thanks for the gif...clicking on that I can see the new kid-rig move. These little avis are so cute even when they aren't in the game I'll definitely give this one a try too. Thanks for making it!

Wow, still alive ...

OK, i suppose that the problem was the absence of "b_ROOT__" on the original rigfile. After including it with the correct parameters the feet slipping is gone.



I re-uploaded the child animation base and the new rigfile (see thread 7), the clip used on this GIF is the children buff_buzzCrash.

It would be great if anyone test it, then i can correct the adult animation base using the same principle.

I tested the child rig by replacing the c_idle_grumpy_muttering01_x animation with the c_idle_neutral_shiftWeight_x animation.

In Milkshape the c_idle_neutral_shiftWeight_x has this move:



which is missing from the looped animation played in the game as seen in this avi:

http://jaue.com/om/Video-18.avi

Sorry for the still shot in Milkshape...I haven't figured out how to film action in MS yet. If someone can tell me how I'll film the smd I overwrote the painting clip with.

Anyway, although they aren't scooting up under the body as they did with all my adult tests, the feet are still not taking on the animation properly...at least as far as this single test goes. It's hard to test the child anim rig because there aren't many animations in the painting that the AnimTool will convert successfully. The others I tried all had too many frames and got an error message to that effect. (at least 200 would be nicer for getting clips out of the game with if that's possible )

Sorry I don't have better news.

eta: I suppose I should have printed the word "feet" instead up above because the other foot doesn't have the right position either.

In the avi thread Wes said, "...some of the other things that are troublesome, including why the legs don't work properly in the game, even though they are exported using the very same code as all the other joints."

In my tests with Wes' adult rig the feet didn't move properly when they were in clip form in the game. But if I exported the apparently damaged clip and converted it back into an smd it looked fine in MS. Wes reported the same result when I sent him one of my clip packages.

This makes me wonder if the information that's in the smd is somehow not what the clip needs to see...the AnimTool is copying the information faithfully in both directions but, for some reason, the information the clip needs to see regarding the feet isn't coming through in a form that makes sense in the game. There is something different in the way the game is looking at arm animation and leg/foot animation I think...the arm animation always looks fine even on animation sequences I've made myself.

Did you test your child rig in the game yourself? If so did you get the same result I did?

Ooo...and I didn't mean to neglect to say I hope you had fun at the Carnival

hummmmmmmmmmm....

after a few more tweaks, here is a better file group. I´ve included some bones that i discovered that are essential to the in-game animation. The new files are on thread 5 of this topic

Using a_idle_neutral_shiftWeight, i extracted the smd using animtool + provided rigfile and I imported the smd over the provided animation base. At this point i added some rotation to rToe on a few frames, to ensure that the animation showed in-game was my edited file. After export the smd, it was converted to clip again using animtool. Finally, using S3PE i created a package and tested it in-game.

Uff, now it is working.

A few threads ago, i mentioned that i was supposing that there is a kind of IK system on TS3 animations. And, yes, this is true, all animation data on foot are not readed by the game, it uses the info stored on footOffset and footWorld.

To better illustrate this, here is a silly animation :


Only one bone was translated (R_Foot_World) to produce the bends that you can see on thigh, knee and ankle.

I´m almost sure that this kind of chain also binds the hands and body position. I will try on this soon.

I tried the new rig. I replaced the Hips Shake sequence with the Hands Above Sequence. The good news is that the feet are now bouncing as they should.

The bad news is that the right upper limb is distorted as shown in the still shot:



For illustrative purposes, here is the same sequence on the anim in MS which shows up just fine:



Here is footage from the game...you can see the feet are moving but the right arm is deformed at elbow, wrist, and hand:

http://jaue.com/om/Video-19.avi

Sorry for the amateur camara-work...I'm not much of a film-maker.

I really need a animation base and when I come here, I have to post a reply right :-? anyway Thanks for your sharing

In the 4th post mesher said that he included the female rig in the rar attached. As far as I can see there's only the male one inside. Anyone knows where is it?

btw, great work mesher! the male is really perfect.

As far as I know, when Mesher updated the adult model, he posted the male version of it alone.

thanks for the reply.
Do you know if there's a female rig that works good as the mesher's male. Because the female has the root frame quite messed up.

If there's a functional rig with a female appearance I'm not aware of it...if there is one, it hasn't been posted at this site.

Hi Somebody know where from I can download adult female animation because fingers or another part of bodies are diffrent.

I think you can use S3PE to extract the animation and rig from fullbuild0 and RothN's ts3animator or Wes Howe's
animtool to convert it to smd. Probably someone with more experience than myself could offer more specific
advice and/or links.

I''m happy. I was able to successfully export an animation using Maya + SMD scripts, would anyone be interested in a tutorial for that process?

I would be interested in learning which SMD script you used on what version of Maya. I was just working today on a .ms3d importer/exporter for Maya 2011... a plug-in, which has to be compiled for each specific version of Maya. I haven't yet added the animation frames to the process, but I was able to make a round-trip of a skinned TS3 mesh (the same one I posted for the animation base), so I am satisfied that it is a viable project. Perhaps with the liberal terms AutoDesk is offering students (free) there would be more interest in using Maya here.

So at least a bulleted list would interest me. Maya offers a lot of useful animation tools and capabilities (like IK and curve/tangent editing) not available in MilkShape. I was able to easily map the standard TS3 skeleton to the Human IK tools, so I have my sights set on seeing if I can transfer animations from some of the MoCap files I have.

<* Wes *>

Hello! Somebody knows where can I get a toddler's body mesh? Thanks!

Here is the Blender 2.5 version of am_body_4_anim. Also included is the idle posed rig, for better animation transitions.